SOTL Research Design for Assessment of Interventions

Open Access

Abstract

Faculty are becoming increasingly interested in the science of teaching and learning (SoTL) and
working to explore whether specific interventions are associated with a substantive change in
learning outcomes (Whitman and Richlin 2007). In this article we lay out different ways faculty
might deepen their approach to SoTL through their courses, provide examples for and
explanations of these designs, discuss different means of assessing outcomes depending on
the types and regularity of courses faculty teach, and provide specific tools for assessment in
the context of a Political Science methods course.